Andy Reid Explains How Rashee Rice’s Growth Helped Travis Kelce, KC Chiefs’ Season

For most of the 2023-24 season, the Kansas City Chiefs were a team held back by their offense. That was unfamiliar territory for a franchise led by Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, although one specific player helped turn things around.

The development of wide receiver Rashee Rice as a rookie may have saved Kansas City’s season.

It’s on record how much of an impact Rice made during his debut campaign. In 16 regular-season games, he hauled in 79 passes for 938 yards and seven touchdowns — all figures that comfortably led the wideout room. Rice and Kelce accounted for a huge chunk of the Chiefs’ receiving statistics, aiding Mahomes in fine-tuning things for the playoffs. The rest is history, as a Super Bowl LVIII win over the San Francisco 49ers secured back-to-back titles.

“People were going, ‘Kelce’s over the hill.’ Well, no, we just needed Rashee to keep growing, and he was so willing to do that and Patrick was so willing to work with him and never got frustrated with him or anything else. It worked out. We all had hope, we just needed to keep growing. We saw it the year before with our defense. Our secondary were a bunch of young guys and they just kept getting better and better and better and by the time we got to the playoffs, they were rollin